Gore for good: This video game designer works to help doctors now at Level Ex

Kristan Lieb / Blue Sky

Ryan Blake is the art lead at Level Ex.

Ryan Blake is the art lead at Level Ex.

(Kristan Lieb / Blue Sky)

Erin Chan DingBlue Sky Innovation

What's it really like to work at Chicago startups and tech companies? Blue Sky's Inside Job lets people on the ground tell us in their own words.

Ryan Blake, 28, Art Lead at Level Ex

We essentially take medical cases and build them using video game technology.

If there's a case like a firefighter who inhaled embers and soot, and you might not have any idea what it looks like inside his larynx, we work with doctors and get photos of what that looks like. My job is to build it like the photos and videos we were provided. I use a tablet, and I can sculpt it, and then I give it to these dudes who can do all the programming.

The medical space, in terms of tech for learning, is really crappy. If you go to these medical conferences, and I’ve been to a few, there are squishy bodies on tables and models of people with mouths open so you can intubate and practice. They’re not great. They don’t look real. They’re extremely expensive.

We’re all from the video game world, so we decided, “Hey, let’s bring video game tech — which is so cool and so far into the future — let’s bring it to these doctors.”

We decided we were going to build a human body. We started with the larynx. Currently, we’re doing lower gastrointestinal, which is going to look incredible.

Kristan Lieb / Blue Sky

Blake works out of Level Ex's office in the shared space at WeWork Kinzie.

Blake works out of Level Ex's office in the shared space at WeWork Kinzie.

(Kristan Lieb / Blue Sky)

We do it on mobile. People can download the app, and as we develop our technology and develop cases, we can put those cases out for everyone to play. It’s sort of like a video game, in a serious sense.

Doctors can earn Continuing Medical Education credits, as well as play some interesting cases along the way. We can’t go super arcade-y with it, but if you damage the patient enough, the screen flashes red, and you lose points and you've got to start over again.

We’re working with multiple hospitals, med-tech companies, medical conferences. We’re going to start doing virtual reality, so hopefully, at the next convention, you’ll be able to put on a headset with these controllers and be inside a colon, removing stuff.

I am in charge of everything that’s visual, so if it’s a button or a throat or someone’s face, I had some responsibility in making it. We have a medical team of advisers we’ll contact, and they’ll say, "Oh, this is totally wrong. Make it more red" or "Make it vein-ier."

When I was a kid, I was like, “I need to make video games.” I got to high school and joined a robotics team with a bunch of nerdy dudes. I spent two summers building stuff, just self-taught. It was a lot of your typical, “I’m going to kill zombies or be a ninja” games. I got a scholarship from Columbia College. My degree was in interactive arts and media.

For my first gaming job, I started applying around at different studios, and I got a job with Phosphor. My life goal was already checked off.

We did “WWE Immortals,” “Man of Steel,” “World War Z.” Video games are so fun, but there’s a harsh reality in games. They don’t tell you you’re working 100-hour weeks. If it’s a slow schedule, you’re working 70-hour weeks. I would sleep at the studio three or four days a week. You’re eating takeout all day.

I did that for four-and-a-half years, and I was tired. I got married around that time, and I was just, “I don’t know who my wife is, she has no idea who I am, I need to figure this out.”

It just so happened (Level Ex founder and CEO) Sam (Glassenberg) was looking for game industry people to work on a medical thing. If you look at my bookshelf, it’s full of anatomy books. I would spend my Saturday nights, like, “I’m going to work on (digitally sculpting) hamstrings tonight and pour a glass of whiskey.”

I found Sam’s personal email, it was like, "Yo, dude" — we’re not formal at all in the game business — "I heard you need some art help." So we met for sushi, and he gave me the rundown. I was the second person hired.

I told him, “I’ll be on board for six months,” and it’s a year and a half later, and we’ve quadrupled our team, so I think it’s going well.

We’re at 16 here at Chicago. Our marketing team is in Colorado. We’re about 20 people total.

We joke a lot. We have a companywide quote board of just ridiculous things you hear. (Lead software engineer) Andy (Saia), for example, had to build code for an esophagus. He’s just so focused, and all you hear is him saying like, “… sphincter is too tight.” And he’s got headphones on, and we lose it. And it goes on the quote board. Everything is taken out of context.

All of us have projects outside of work, which is something Sam looks for. He doesn’t want someone who comes in to do 9 to 5 and goes home and watches Netflix all day. We all tinker. I work on 3-D portraits and do 3-D printing stuff in my spare time. I built Professor Snape.

The response here is way different than in the video game world. In the game world, you have 13-year-old boys telling you, “You’re mom’s a hooker, and your game is terrible.”

Doctors will see our work, and say, “Oh, this is cool!” You’re definitely doing something that helps people, and it’s super weird, and it’s a good feeling.

As told to freelance reporter Erin Chan Ding. Stories are edited for length and clarity.